RUBEN MITA

Lines that have come a long way to be with us today

i. Here

3 o’clock
came and went
like the buzzing
of a planet
past the ear
of the sun.


ii. Always

The tendrils against the window
knock louder
than ten drills
in the neighbour’s yard.


iii. Both

Trying to look
into the night
I become inseparably
tangled with
my own reflection.


iv. Nowhere

On the book shelf,
water drips
between the searchlights.


v. Forever

The selfless rain fell
from clouds that sacrificed
their colour and shape
for the strength of
the tomato leaf.


vi. Once

Trees turn a field
into a forest
the grass is still there
but no longer defines it.


vii. Elsewhere

I wish you
were a summer beach house
I could lie in.


viii. Now

Remember –
I am 24
and I am
waiting for nothing.

A front-on photo of poet Ruben Mita against a landscape of a river and a gray sky

Ruben Mita is a poet, musician, and ecologist from Aotearoa New Zealand, now living in the United Kingdom. He has been published in journals such as The Honest Ulsterman, Landfall, takahē, Turbine | Kapohau, Minarets, Sweet Mammalian and Starling. He is the author of A Naturalist's Guide to the Fungi of Aotearoa New Zealand. He likes fish, fire and other worlds.

Mita comments: 'The title is true of most poems. These were my favourite fragments that I couldn't find homes for, rescued from failed poems. They could be about the same, shadowy thing from different angles. They zoom in and out dramatically. The continuity of the world, things continuing parallel and all at once in a huge chaotic way on different scales. The last stanza is a real reminder to myself. It was true when it was written, not when it was published.'

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